Internet of Things Global Events List

INFLUENCER OUTREACH PART THREE – Love Chic Living and B&Q

With nearly one million followers on Pinterest and a string of blog awards and accolades under her belt, Jen Stanbrook, creator of the interiors blog Love Chic Living, gets multiple approaches from brands every single day. Jen is well-respected for her simple, elegant style, and great taste, so her blog was a great fit for B&Q, who were looking to showcase their Spring/Summer homeware range.

The brief was a relatively simple one.

“I was approached by a contact I’ve worked with before,” explains Jen, “detailing the campaign. They had a budget of £250 for me to spend on new season products, and then they wanted me to style them, showcasing them in my home with my own twist. They also wanted a Pinterest board with images I’d created and inspirational imagery. They didn’t want any press imagery at all, everything was to be bespoke and personal.”

There are a couple of key points to note here.

First of all, B&Q recognised the importance of Jen’s style and authenticity, and wanted the project to incorporate this. It’s this personal style after all that has attracted so many readers to Love Chic Living, and it’s what, as a brand, you’re trying to tap into. If you find, when you’re working with influencers, that you’re having to be prescriptive about style and tone, then chances are you’ve picked the wrong person to work with – your influencers should reflect and enhance your brand naturally, it shouldn’t need to be forced.

Secondly, B&Q did a great job of identifying one relevant social platform that they wanted to focus on, and then choosing an influencer who had a very strong presence in this one particular area. Many brands feel the need to cover as many bases as possible, but it’s normally much more effective to focus on doing one thing really well than spreading yourself too thin and diluting your message in the process. There’s no denying that Jen rocks Pinterest, and for a very visual range of products like this one, Pinterest is perfect. B&Q aren’t complete novices – they have over 7,000 Pinterest followers of their own – but they’d never be able to rival Jen’s massive reach.

For Jen, as for Molly and Alison in our last post, the experience was a positive one because of how easy B&Q were to work with, and how they respected her work. “I went back with a fee to cover the work,” says Jen, “and it was all agreed easily and without fuss. The payment process was started up front as there were long lead times, which was a wonderfully refreshing approach, rather than being told afterwards that I would wait three months for payment. There was clear and regular communication throughout the project, with ongoing support, yet the freedom to be creative. Overall it was a great example of creative content, trust, respect and thoughtfulness all round.”

In looking to reach as many new people as possible, what B&Q ultimately want of course is to make those connections with individuals that come so much more naturally through bloggers like Jen than through traditional marketing channels. A quick look through the comments on the blog post highlights this perfectly:

“Love the colours and the textures,” says one commenter, “and I really like the mood boards you created for each trend too. I’m a little shocked this is all from B&Q though. Think I need to plan a visit asap.”

This, for B&Q, is what influencer outreach is all about.

DMWF Amsterdam is just around the corner – join us and the rest of the digital community next week, on the 13 & 14 April!

And keep an idea out for the Influencer Marketing Masterclass panel discussion at 11am on day one, as part of the Social Media Marketing track! Featuring key representitives from Asics, First Day of Spring, Shinola and Akzonobel Decorative Coatings.